Transformers Prime: A Friend In Need
Rating: T for some strong language, some violence, gang related situations, and some adult themes
Genre: Friendship/Drama
Short Summary:
After Season 2 Finale-Smokescreen is alone after escaping the Destruction of the Autobot base and while running from Vehicons, he ends up a terrible crash. What can he do if he can't transform because his T-Cog was smashed? When he gets bought by a girl named Carlee?

::Chapter One::

It was really crazy that things were turning out this way. Especially only right after he had just joined Team Prime and now things were turning sour. Terribly sour.

Smokescreen wanted nothing more than to just stop running into the Ground Bridge and turn back, refusing to run. He wanted to stand with Optimus Prime in their darkest hour. He didn't want to run away but fight the final moment. Even as what Megatron called New Kaon rose right outside the soon to be destroyed Autobot Base. He wanted to see his final hour to be glorious like he swore it would be, not running away.

But nonetheless, here he was. Speeding through the Ground Bridge, glancing back one last time at Optimus as he stood in his full glory, watching him go.

A sigh vented out of Smokescreen as he looked ahead to see the cyan vortex open up into darkness. He didn't know where he was going to be landing but he just hoped that he would be able to find the others as soon as possible. He didn't have the same experience as the others did for this planet. Not that he couldn't handle it. He was...dare he say it again, destined for greatness. Right?

But how great could his destiny be if he couldn't fight alongside Optimus Prime like he envisioned it?

Smokescreen set himself in determination. He couldn't think about it. 'No way!' He thought to himself. 'Optimus Prime will survive! There was no way he would deactivate from this! He was a Prime! The Optimus Prime! He will survive this and we will be together again! Me! Optimus Prime! Ratchet! Bulk! Bumblebee! Arcee! And maybe Wheeljack. Though I still don't know about that rogue.' He added in thought. 'And the kids! Jack, Miko, and Raf! We will be fine and we will take out the Decepticreeps once and for all!'

With that uplifted thought, Smokescreen sped forward until he escaped the vortex, slamming on his brakes to look back again just as the brilliance of green light winked out.

For a moment, Smokescreen sat there, in the night darkness, wondering just where he had been dropped off to. It was very dark where he was at and he could barely see his surroundings with on his HUD.

Oh wait. He needed to adjust his visionary status.

'Duh!' Smokescreen thought dumbly in embarrassment as he activated his night time visionary program. He was kind of glad no one was around to witness his moment of...what would be a good word for this situation? Ah, let's just call it embarrassment.

Looking around with his scanners, Smokescreen saw only trees and hills. He frowned to himself, still looking around before realizing he was in a rocky terrain slash desert of some kind. He still didn't have a clue where he was.

"Right. First things first. Rule number one on being sent on a mission, scout the area. Find out your location." Smokescreen spoke to himself before he started moving. "Rule number two, blend in surroundings. Do not reveal yourself unless attacked by Decepticreeps. Blend in. Blend in. Blend in...blend in what?!" He groaned before just driving. He flipped on his bright head lights. "Now where is the road? Is there even a road here?"

Unfortunately, it seemed that Ratchet had just put in random coordinates because it took an hour to even find a road. And it wasn't like Smokescreen could transform at the moment. He had learned from Arcee and Ratchet that while vehicle form, it took the Decepticons longer to scan out his energon signature. And he was suppose to be in hiding until he was called for. So...in his car form, he was stuck.

It took about an hour to even find a road, which happened to be a dirt road, near a rocky mountain, that looked similar to the one the Omega Base had been in. But nothing looked familiar...sort of.

With too much complaining, Smokescreen drove down the darkened dirt road, grimacing as his under carriage kept striking against rocks. He drove as careful as he could until he spied spots of light off to his right. He felt his spark lift up to see some form of civilization. It, however, didn't look any bigger than Jasper had.

"Great. From one dead small town to another. Still don't even know where I am at." Smokescreen murmured in misery as he drove towards the town, only to, Thank, Primus!, find a paved road leading right to it. With a sign.
Eagle. 1, 142.

"Uh...okay." Smokescreen said frowning to himself before driving right into the darkened town. He looked around and then frowned when he saw a shadow of a tower of some sort. He could barely make out what it said. "Eagle? What the slag?" He murmured. "So I guess this place is called Eagle? Whatever."

Driving down a dark road, Smokescreen took in the entire scenery before venting. It was clearly a small place. He was not going to like being here but it seemed to be a no where town. So maybe it was perfect to hide in until he heard from Optimus or Ratchet.

Though, first things first, he needed a place to recharge. He felt drained of energy from all of the excitement.

"Okay. Let's do this." Smoke screen said as he picked up speed down the road, spreading out his scanner range for a possible shelter. He frowned inwardly to find mostly small buildings that wouldn't be right for him to rest his wheels.

It was another hour before he seemed to have searched the entire town for anything. And by that time, according to his chronometer, it was getting really late at night. And he sure felt over heated from exhaustion.

"Ack. Maybe it won't be so bad to just park on the side of the road and recharge." Smokescreen said tiredly as he found himself slowing down. His sensors and HUD had already flashed warnings at him, threatening to shut him off automatically. He had to over ride them three times already. "Primus, I'm tired. Why not...?"

Suddenly he saw a flashing warning pop up on his HUD, jerking him to full awareness. He twisted his rear view mirror to look behind him and saw what he didn't want to see.

Six dark purple and black Cadillac Ciens with burning red head lights were driving down the seemingly abandoned town road. With them were two largely built Insecticons, merely walking around as if they didn't care if they were seen or not. One of them, a really big, ugly acid green one was pointing his arm around at the very few cars that were even out on the side of the road.

"Scrap! They found me already?!" Smokescreen hissed to himself before peeling out his wheels in a loud screech and clearly catching the Vehicons and Insecticons' attention. He knew he couldn't fight all of them here, in the town where people could get hurt or even see them. And surely he wasn't going to be able to fight them all at once. He distinctively remembered those big bug bots being very hard to fight.

Rule number one when fighting Decepticreeps in human public: Don't. Get to somewhere that humans won't be hurt or see the fight.

'I remembered that rule because Arcee was always yelling it into my face. It was a good thing she is hot because I really hate being yelled at.' He thought to himself.

"An Autobot! After him!" Snarled one of the Insecticons in Cybertronian before transforming and was flying after Smokescreen quickly.

The Vehicons were immediately speeding after, never minding that there were a few lights that had turned on in the buildings surrounding them.

Smokescreen sped down the street, trying to draw the Decepticreeps after him. He had no idea how the frag they found him but he didn't care. He was so ready to pay these glitches back for what they did to the Autobot base.

Glancing back through his mirror again, the young Autobot warrior was only too happy that they hadn't decided to fire at him. They were just chasing him. He could only wonder why they were...

Suddenly, Smokescreen heard a loud blaring horn, forcing his attention back forward and his spark nearly stalled when the first thing he saw was a red light. He had arrived at an intersection and he was about to run through it. He didn't care too much for the human laws of street traffic and all of that slag.

But what he did care about was a large semi truck pulling a large trailer down the road. It was honking its loud horn at him, trying to get his attention as it was coming through the intersection, just as he was.

The first thing Smokescreen could even think about doing was slamming on his brakes.

The second thing he could think of was, "Scrap!" as soon as the semi truck slammed right into his side, sending pain coursing all through his frame as he found himself being thrown onto his vehicle side and being dragged by the semi truck that was still slamming on its brakes.

By the time he and the truck stopped screeching and sliding across the pavement, everything went completely black for Smokescreen. His HUD, his sensory system, his visionary programs, everything shut off into forced shut down.

The Decepticons, on the other hand, immediately halted from their pursuit, just down the road and looked on the scene with alarm. The Vehicons, anyway. The Insecticons were too busy snickering at the sight of an Autobot getting taken down by a human vehicle.

"Ouch! That's gotta hurt!" The Vehicon, SK33T3R remarked from where he sat down the road.

The other Vehicons would have nodded if they could as they watched truck and smashed Autobot come to a complete stop. None of them were moving. Not the Autobot or the human driver in the truck. But it was clear that the loud commotion had woken up a lot of humans in the area. Lights were flashing on ad windows were being thrown open for the humans to look out.

"Hey! There's been an accident! Call the Sheriff!" A human shouted.

"Uh...what should we do? Finish the Autoscum off?" The Vehicon, P373 asked looking around at the others.

For a moment they just sat there, staring at the Autobot, waiting to see if he'd move. They could see fluids leaking from under him and the tell tale glowing blue energon that ran through all Cybertronians. It was no doubt that the Autobot was hurt pretty bad.

"Nah, let's just go back to the ship. That Autobot is dead anyway. There's no way he survived that. Not with all his energon spilling like that." The leading Vehicon, ST3V3E remarked before starting to drive away with the other five and the two Insecticons following after.

Unbeknownst to them, however, Smokescreen was still alive. Just completely shut down in emergency lockdown until his emergency repair system could kick in.